Once Upon a Time
by Misanagi
Summary: Quatre tells his niece a story that is not as make believe asshe thinks. Quatre's POV


**Once Upon a Time**

**By Misanagi**

Rating: PG

Pairing: 3x4

Summary: Quatre tells his niece a story that is not as make believe as she thinks. Quatre's POV

Disclaimer: I don't own GW or the characters used in this fic.

Archive: Gundanium Line

Notes: Written for the Ev'rybody Get Pink'd! challenge on SDQB.

Thanks a lot to Anne for the beta. hugs

* * *

The girl at the counter smiled at me sweetly as she wrapped the dress. "Your daughter must be very beautiful," she said. "This costume will look lovely on her."

"Oh no," I said, shaking my head slightly, "I have no children. The dress is for my niece."

I would have had to be blind no to notice the way the girl's eyes lit up and her whole demeanor changed. Her smile turned from sweet to seductive, her chest pushed slightly forward to allow me to get a good look at her cleavage, and she batted her eyelashes. "That's a shame." Her voice was now softer, almost alluring. "You deserve a beautiful girl."

There was no time for me to think of a suitable reply because Trowa put his arm around my shoulders, brushed my cheek softly, and said, "between all his sisters and nieces, he has enough girls at his disposal." Then he winked at the girl before planting a sloppy kiss on my cheek.

The girl blinked, and then blinked some more before settling for a polite smile and handing me the package. "Have a good day."

"Thanks, same to you," replied Trowa, taking the package, and leading me out of the store.

"A bit possessive, aren't we?" I teased as we headed to the car.

He shrugged and got into the driver's seat. "Just letting her know you are taken."

I laughed. "Like there's something wrong with letting the girl keep her dreams." He turned on the car and I put my hands behind my neck, getting myself comfortable. "Trowa, you are no fun."

"You wouldn't be saying the same if the situation was reversed." He took his sunglasses from the glove compartment and started the drive to Iria's home. "I remember that time in Giuseppe's when you almost got the waitress fired just because she was flirting with me."

I crossed my arms in front of my chest and glared at him. "That was completely different."

He smirked. "Yeah? And why's that?"

"Well, for starters, she wasn't just flirting. If it had been up to her she would have had you naked on that table and eating spaghetti from her bare chest," I grumbled. I really hadn't liked that girl. "And excuse me if I don't believe that she /accidentally/ spilled the water on your pants. That has to be the oldest trick in the book."

He chuckled. "You would know."

"Trowa Barton, are you trying to imply that I'm some kind of tease?" I pretended to look offended.

"Of course not, Mr. Winner," he answered, quickly parking the car in my sister's driveway. "I'm stating it." He leaned on me, opened his mouth and... turned around. "Your niece is waiting for us," he said, exiting the car.

"Bloody tease," I muttered before taking the package from the back seat and following Trowa inside.

Iria and her husband, Isaac, had decided to get a small house near the hospital where they both worked. It was in a nice neighborhood that had been decorated with ghosts, witches and pumpkins for the Halloween celebration tonight. I checked my watch; we still had a little more than an hour before May had to be ready to go trick or treating with some friends.

"Quatre, thank heavens you are here!" said Iria, running out of the house. "Hi, Trowa," she said as she passed by him, giving him a rushed kiss on the cheek. "I need to go now. One of my patients was just moved to the ICU." She sighed. "May is upset about something. She came home crying today and wouldn't talk to me. I hate leaving her like this but…"

"Go," I said, and put a hand on her shoulder. "We'll take good care of her."

She gave me a sad smile and a hug before running to her car and driving off. I rushed into the house, took the stairs two at a time and stopped before a lavender colored door. I knocked twice and waited.

"Yes?" answered a soft voice from inside.

"May? It's Uncle Quatre and Uncle Trowa. Can we come in?"

We waited, and I could hear her small steps coming towards the door before she opened it, poked her head out, looked at me, and hugged me. She was sobbing softly. I petted her head a couple of times and picked her up. "Do you want to talk about it?" I asked, entering the room and settling her on the bed.

She shook her head twice and looked at her feet. There was something bothering her but she needed some time, and I was going to give it to her. Trowa and I sat on the bed, each on one side of her. "We got you something," Trowa said, trying to change the subject.

Her head was raised and she smiled, looking at Trowa expectantly. I gave her the package. "For tonight."

The minute she saw what was inside, her whole expression became gloomy again. She turned her head away from the bag and sniffled. "I don't want it anymore."

I didn't believe her. It wasn't only because she had spent the last month telling me how she would like to be a princess for Halloween, or how I needed to get her that specific dress because it was pink and shiny. No, it was the sadness in her voice that told me that she was refusing something she really wanted. "Why?"

"Because..." Sniff. "Because... because only stupid kids like pink." She crossed her hands above her chest and pouted.

"Who told you that, May?" I asked, trying to keep my voice soft.

"Mickey Randall. I told him I was dressing as a princess and he said it was stupid." She looked up at me. "I really wanted to wear the dress but I don't want to be stupid, Uncle Quatre."

I took her into my arms and made her look at me. "You are not stupid, May, and don't believe anyone who tells you otherwise. Colors are always good, and they can't make people stupid."

"But Mickey Randall-"

"Mickey Randall doesn't know everything," I said, but she didn't look very convinced. "For example, does he know about the War of Colors?" I asked.

May shook her head, and Trowa raised an eyebrow.

"Do you want me to tell you the story?"

She nodded and I took a deep breath.

"Once upon a time, in a world filled with sorrow and despair, there lived a little girl who was destined to become a princess. She had been traveling with her father when she decided to look up at the sky and saw a star. But this wasn't really a star, it was a knight, sent from the lands of the sky to Earth to help make it a joyful place again."

"Did she know it wasn't a star?" asked May. She had made herself comfortable in my arms and had her whole attention devoted to me.

"She knew there was more to that star that met the eye. The little girl was very smart and she could tell that she was witnessing something that would change the world." I petted May's hair and continued. "The star she saw wasn't the only one. There were four more and all of them landed in a different part of Earth, to start the fight against the dark forces that made the world a sad place."

"Why was the world sad, Uncle Quatre?" In these past ten years we have experienced a blissful peace. People had got tired of battles, and mobile suits are a thing of the past. May had never known the fear of war, the constant worry of what could happen. To her, war is something distant, something that might have touched her parents' lives but doesn't exist in her world. It might happen in books, but not in reality.

"People weren't free," I answered. "The dark forces controlled their lives, threatening them with their mighty weapons and deciding who was allowed to live and who wasn't. People wanted to be free." I smiled at her. "That's why the knights were sent to Earth, to free the people."

May bit her lip. "Were they able to?" she asked in a small voice.

"In a way. They helped a lot, but the person who managed to bring the color back to the darkened world, was the little girl." May opened her mouth to ask another question but I put a finger on her lips. "Listen to the story and you'll see what I mean." I caught a glimpse of Trowa looking at me. His eyes were focused on me; he was interested in what I was going to say, too.

"Later, when the girl was walking back to her home, she saw a boy lying on a beach. She went to help him because she knew he was hurt, but when the boy opened his eyes, he ran away. She met this boy later when she found out that they went to the same school."

"Did they fall in love?" May asked, hoping, like any little girl would, that the princess would get a charming knight at the end.

Trowa snickered and looked at me with curiosity, waiting to hear what I would say. "Not right then," I told May. "You see, the girl was still too young to understand love and the knight could think of nothing but his mission to bring color back to the world." May pouted slightly so I added, "but, some time after the war was over, the knight and the princess met again, and then there was time for love."

"Did they lived happily ever after?" asked May, excited again.

"You are getting ahead of the story," said Trowa before I could answer. "Let Quatre finish his tale."

After May nodded, I continued. "One day, the girl had the chance to meet another knight. There had been some confusion and the two knights had thought they were enemies, even though they had been fighting for the same cause. However, the girl knew that something was wrong so she stopped the fight, but unfortunately, the first knight was injured and ended up in the hospital."

"Uncle Quatre, did the knights not have names?"

"Er…" I had hoped to keep the story as anonymous as possible, and to do that, I had to avoid names. May knew everyone involved in the story, and called most of them "uncle".

"If they don't have names, you should make up some for them," said Trowa helpfully, "or the story is going to get confusing."

"Names," I said, more to myself than to them. "Well… since this is the war of colors, it's only fitting that each knight has a color to represent them. The first knight was Blue, and the second one was Violet."

"What about the princess?" said May, letting me know that she was the most important one for her.

"Well, of course we can't forget the princess. She loved pink; she even had a chariot that was pink so she became the Pink Princess, but for now she's only the little girl. She believed in peace and colors but unlike the knights, she didn't believe in fighting." I hoped that sounded reasonable enough. "So, where was I?"

"You were telling us about that first encounter between Blue and Violet," said Trowa, the amusing smile he had gotten at the beginning of the story still firmly in place.

"Oh yes. Well, after that, Violet helped Blue to escape from the hospital and they went into hiding. They still had some… issues to work out." I cleared my throat to avoid laughing out loud at the look on Trowa's face. "Meanwhile, the other three knights had also arrived on Earth, and had been fighting their own battles against the dark forces." I decided to look at Trowa instead of May for this part of the story. "In one very hard battle, the Green Knight found himself facing hundreds of enemies. He had a mighty weapon but this weapon had a weakness; while it was very powerful, after some time its power was drained." I smiled sweetly at Trowa before looking at May. "You can say he ran out of… power."

I could feel Trowa's glare even without looking at him. I kept smiling and looking at May. He wouldn't dare call me names with an eight year old in the room.

"What happened to the Green Knight?" asked May, looking between Trowa and I. "What could he do against the dark forces if he ran out of power?"

I couldn't stop myself from snickering that time. "Well, just when the enemy was about to overcome the Green Knight, another warrior arrived at the scene. He had forty loyal soldiers by his side and they all saved the Green Knight."

"The Green Knight was perfectly able to save himself," muttered Trowa.

"Keep telling yourself that," I whispered back to him.

May ignored us. She was too into the story to concern herself with my conversation with Trowa. "What was the new knight's color?"

I opened my mouth and closed it. I needed a color. Blue was already taken, green was already taken, even pink was taken.

"Teal," said Trowa, before I could ponder any longer. "An uncommon color but he wasn't a common knight either."

May crawled into the bed and out of my hold. "Was he your favorite knight, Uncle Trowa?" she asked while tugging at his shirt sleeve.

Trowa smiled at her, but looked at me. "Yes, he still is my favorite knight."

"Was he your favorite too, Uncle Quatre?"

"No," I said, keeping my gaze fixed on Trowa's eyes. "The Green one is my favorite."

"Really?" May raised her eyebrow. "Even with him running out of power all the time?"

I couldn't stop myself from laughing, especially after noticing how Trowa diverted his eyes. "He does have other qualities, if you get to know him well enough."

"Whatever," she said and made a W sign with her fingers. "So what about the fifth knight?"

"The Black Knight. He was a very proud knight and a fierce warrior. Not many people knew it but the colors meant a lot to him; that's why he fought so much for them. The colors were special to him." I didn't know much about his part of the tale; Wufei wasn't one to tell his war stories. "He was very strong and he was the one who helped the rest of the knights see their mistake when the dark powers tricked them." I took a moment to gather my thoughts and to try to explain what happened next in words that an eight year old could understand. "Besides the warriors and the girl, there were a lot of people who wanted peace, but not all of them fought with weapons. Some of them fought with words."

"Is that what you do, Uncle Quatre? Mom always tells me when you are on the vid that you are fighting to keep the world a peaceful place, and that's why you have to travel all the time and appear at so many conferences." She crossed her arms above her chest. "I still hate it when you have to go, and you always take Uncle Trowa with you so there's no one left to play twister with me."

I smiled at her. "It's part of my job but this is my last year so I won't be taking your play partner away from you anymore."

"It's okay," she said, her expression still stubborn. "I just like to see him twist. He looks like a spider," she giggled and I laughed.

Trowa sighed heavily. "Could you two please stop teasing me and go back to the story? Quatre, I'm sure May wants to hear the rest."

I decided to give Trowa a break and continue. "There was group of wise men who fought for peace with words, and since they were so powerful the dark forces were afraid of them. That's why the dark forces decided to create a scheme to make the knights think that the wise men were dark, and so, in a battle, the wise men were killed by the Blue Knight who didn't realize what he had done."

May was starting to look sad so I tried to get the bad parts of the story out of the way quickly. I still remember the stories I used to hear when I was little and I know that sadness, even if it is in fiction, has to be a part of a child's life; sadness teaches us to appreciate happiness. "A short time before that, the little girl had traveled to the higher lands with her father, and there her father died, but before he did he told the girl a secret. He wasn't her real father, and she was really a princess, the Pink Princess."

May was looking at the package with the dress apprehensively. "She had to lose her father to become a princess?"

"No, she was already a princess. Her father just wanted to let her know before he died, so she wouldn't feel so alone."

She nodded and looked away. "Did the knights manage to stop the fighting, then?" She was trying to change the subject to something different, maybe happier, but what came next wasn't happy at all.

I sighed. "The knights tried another strike against the dark forces. They were all fighting for the same objective but they didn't seem to be able to fight together." I suppressed another sigh. "However, that battle had been a trap as well. As the knights were fighting, a soldier of darkness threatened to fire upon the sky lands if the knights didn't surrender."

May gasped. "That's horrible!"

"Yes, it was," said Trowa, softly.

"Of course the knights couldn't let that happen." I ran my fingers through May's hair. "The Blue Knight even destroyed himself and his weapon instead of surrendering it to the dark forces."

"Did he die too?" asked May, her lower lip trembling a little.

"We... the knights thought he did. However, the Green Knight saved him and nursed him back to health." May smiled. "After that, the knights lay low for a while but soon it was time to fight again." I looked at my watch. May needed to get ready to go trick or treating. "It's getting late, so I'll skip to the end."

May groaned and looked at me with those big blue eyes, pleading for more. I wondered where she had picked that up from. "I'll tell you more another time, May, I promise. This is a very long and complicated tale and there is no way I can finish before they come to pick you up."

Of course, there was also the fact that there were many events that I didn't know how to turn into a fairy tale just yet. Skipping to the happy ending was a better idea. Trowa was looking at me. I had the feeling that he had been reading my thoughts and understood just why the story couldn't go on, at least not today.

I continued. "The knights had to fight one final battle. This one was fought in the sky. Some new obscure forces wanted to shoot a lighting bolt towards Earth, one so big that it would destroy it. This was also the first time the knights worked together."

"The Teal Knight made that happen," added Trowa, giving me a small smile.

"And they won? Right, Uncle Quatre? If the knights fought together they had to win."

I nodded. "Yes, they won. They defeated the new obscure forces and saved the Earth, but it was the Pink Princess who brought peace into the world."

May looked confused. "How did she do that? Didn't you say she didn't fight?"

"Peace, May, true peace, can only be held by one who believes in resolving matters through conversation instead of wielding a sword. The Pink Princess was this person. It's a lot more difficult to keep peace than to obtain it. The Pink Princess was very strong, and was able to keep the world a peaceful and colorful place."

"Did she marry the Blue Knight? What happened to the other knight? And how did they get to the sky?"

I smiled at May. "Trowa will tell you the rest of the story another day," I said and smirked at him.

"Now is time for you to get ready, May," said Trowa, helping her off the bed. "Do you still want to wear something else?" he asked, grabbing the package.

May reached slowly for the bag and opened it, looking thoughtfully at the dress inside. Finally, she smiled and shook her head. "I like the dress, I want to wear it. Thanks, uncles." She gave us each a hug before running to the bathroom to put the dress on.

"So I ran out of power?" asked Trowa, glaring at me.

I laughed. "Well that's one way of putting it," I said, trying to sound innocent.

"You are fooling no one, Quatre Raberba Winner. And when we get home tonight I'll prove to you just how wrong you are."

I grinned. "If you are so determined to prove your masculinity, Mr. Barton, then who am I to stop you?"

Trowa couldn't reply because May came out of the bathroom. She was dressed in the pink princess costume, and smiling brightly. "How do I look?"

"Beautiful," Trowa and I replied at the same time.

And so, the new and smaller Pink Princess went out for a magical night of trick or treating with her friends.

Meanwhile, the Green Knight took the Teal Knight home to prove that power was something he never ran out of.

And they all lived happily ever after.

* * *

- The end - 


End file.
